Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer

Beauty is a very powerful force. It drives men and women to heights and feats far above their normal fill of dexterity. It fills the human spirit like a burgeoning balloon, lifting it up into the vast blue evanescent skies. Perhaps so it is to be. And for this reason is it termed God! Truth, Beauty and Bliss, the ancient scriptures intone in their gloriously pristine voices. For at the heart of all creation there is a beauty so cruel yet so divine, that had tempted the very source of beauty into this magnificent ever flourishing swirl of creation ... rushing on its speeding heels to absolute death, like the storm dashing to taste its stilling death at the bosom of the towering mountains of the north. But till the time so chooses to come to pass, the havoc of beauty will rule over all our lives. The dying embers that may be left behind glowing their last fading smiles may be good ... and sometimes ... may not be.

Often when confronted with such an empowering force, beauty, I used to wonder what is wrong in worshiping her, for she is the very heart of her creator. We do posses the answers to some of the deepest questions that we find looming over our lives. And all that it takes to bring those answers to light would be an outwardly inconsequential event. It might be a line we read in a book or a word spoken by someone or a note of music that we chance hear ... anything. For me, today, it was a movie. I would never recommend this movie to people whom I love, for I care for them. But I would beg of those in whom I see a light, to savor this film, for I care for them ... too. It is a story of a gifted soul... a soul who is the drunken slave of beauty ... the beauty of smell. So magnetized he is by the enchantment of perfumes... that he fails to honor the true consort of beauty, truth. A movie, that highlight in mystical light that when beauty abandons truth, the bliss there from is but in vanity and would soon fade like a mocking perfume, whose laughter would echo in the blinded darkness of hollow acts.

Watch this movie at your own peril.

Perfume - The Story Of A Murderer

Shawshank Redemption

These were the last few words that kept ringing in my ears, leaving me with an insuppressibly silly happy smile, when the movie came to an end:

“Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows that it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.”

Shawshank Redemption, was more of a song sung in praise of hope and human endeavor, to see beyond reality ... to make your dreams the reality. How true it is ... we’re all birds of bright feathers locked up in small miserable cages of the world around us ... of the worlds we are taught to perceive as the reality. And it is this very world that locks us down, also hopes for us to break free. Ironic as it may sound, every man, woman and child who breaks the bars of the cages that they are held imprisoned in, is acclaimed as a hero. The celebration of the human spirit, past the bitter hurdles in its path is a miracle worth holding close to heart. The most beautiful thing about it is that it is softly and sweetly infectious. It spreads, not like a forest fire, but slowly, smoothly and quietly as it was meant to.

I don’t want to write a review about the movie. There are plenty strewn around that one can always pull up a good writing to know more. It’s hard to put into words the feeling with which my heart swelled as I closed my media player at the end of the movie. I must thank one of my junior [Sid], who knew well that I would like this story, and so put it into a DVD for me.

If you’re reading this and you find yourself by a quite evening, sometime down the week, do stop by a movie library or a DVD store to borrow/ purchase Shawshank Redemption. It’s worth a collector’s item. It looks good on my shelf, and I feel warm and happy to know that I own one.